Easy Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe! A Crowd Pleaser

Chicken & rice is a great dinner recipe to make for your family & friends. It’s delicious & easy, by adding almonds on top you take it from ordinary to extraordinary. With just one chicken, few cups of rice and you get a great dish that’s sure to please.

I love chicken, and I have to say this is one of my favorite dishes. The chicken is moist, juicy & tasty. Every time I call my friend Mona & co-author of our e-cook book “Merriam’s & Mona’s Lebanese Table” she is making chicken & rice.

Merriam’s Double Boil Chicken

Whole chicken w/stock

I like to double boil the chicken. For those of you who have not heard of double boiling chicken, it’s a method of removing fat that surfaces when cooking the chicken without standing at the stove & removing it with a spoon.

In a large stock pot, add the chicken cover with water, let it come to a boil then discard all the water. Remove & wash the chicken (this is first boil), put back the chicken into a clean pot, add in one onion, a couple of bay leaves, salt & pepper, a couple of carrots, half bunch of parsley. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour.(second boil).

Remove the chicken, discard the carrots, onion & parsley. The stock will be used to cook the rice.

In a medium size pot add the oil, onions, garlic & sauté until translucent, add the ground beef and cook until meat is browned well. Add the rice with all the spices. Add chicken stock & cook the rice, for each cup of rice use 1 & ½ cup of stock , enough to cover the rice, bring to a boil, then simmer on low heat.

If the rice is a little under cooked you can always add a little more stock. With Uncle Ben’s rice you can do that it’s so forgiving. Fluff with a fork. Melt the butter in a saute’ pan, add the almonds saute’ until golden & almost brown, remove from pan then saute pine nuts if using till golden brown. Plate rice on a serving dish, top with the shredded chicken, then almonds & pine nuts.

Soup

Chicken Broth with Vermicilli Noodles

With the remaining stock, bring a medium size pot, on low heat, add 1 tbs of butter, ½ cup of vermicelli noodles cook until almost brown, add in the stock cook for 10 minutes for a great tasting soup. Garnish with parsley & serve as a meal starter for your dinner.